Business as usual for Dreyer, Kohler Barnard at Parliament's first 2016 committee meeting

It was business as usual for besieged DA MPs Anchen Dreyer and Dianne Kohler Barnard at Parliament's first committee meeting of the year on the Expropriation Bill.

In spite of coming under fire for attending a commemoration of Paul Kruger's birthday last year, Dreyer was in fighting form as she objected to several points in the bill as it approached finalisation.

On Friday, African National Congress spokesperson Molotho Mothapo said by attending Solidary's Kruger commemoration last year and posing with a picture of the president of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900, she was glorifying a person who had committed heinous crimes against blacks.

Kohler Barnard's party membership was terminated last year after she shared a Facebook post by journalist Paul Kirk calling for the return of apartheid-era president PW Botha. She pleaded guilty to bringing the party into disrepute and for breaching its social media policy.

She appealed the party's decision to expel her. Subsequently her expulsion was suspended until the end of the fifth Parliament in 2019. She was fined R20,000, and had to resign all her elected posts in the party, except her position as MP. 

Dreyer was unbowed as she shot her hand up during the clause-by-clause reading of the bill, which aims to set out exactly how property must be expropriated.

The bill is in its final stages, with changes marked in red and the new version of a clause or sub-section highlighted in blue.

The bill sets out the administrative process to be followed with land claims, how a dispute is recorded and handled, and what the land owner's rights and responsibilities are.

For example, it stipulates that the expropriated owner can use the property, must maintain the property, and keep it in the same condition as it was before expropriation. If that does not happen, the owner becomes liable for the cost of maintenance.

Source: News24